Michigan Muskie Alliance

I must add though that what we already have is pretty good. We have had several good years of stocking with many musky populations thriving all over the state. A one or two year setback will not crush the program. If we have to stock Iowa fish for a year or two in Iowa fish lakes that is better than none at all. This disease will run its course and our D.N.R. will find a way to treat the eggs and get things back on track. Have faith. Kingfisher

Note: Meanwhile, Iowa -- which has a strain of muskies that is genetically similar to Michigan's fish -- has agreed to raise additional muskie fry and, if successful, the planting of fall muskie fingerlings could go on as scheduled.

Virus halts stocking of some fish

04/04/07 By Bob Gwizdz Chronicle Lansing Bureau

State fisheries officials will not stock any walleye, pike or muskellunge this year in an attempt to stall the spread of viral hemorrhagic septicemia into inland waters.

The disease, which appeared in Michigan's Great Lakes waters last spring following a significant die-off of muskies in Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River, is known to exist as far north as the Straits of Mackinac in Lake Huron. There was a die-off of walleye and whitefish in Lake Huron's Thunder Bay last year and biologists believe the disease, known as VHS, has likely spread to Lake Michigan as well.

VHS kills fish by causing hemorrhaging. It does not infect humans who come in contact with infected fish.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources Tuesday announced a one-year moratorium on hatchery production of warm-water fish using eggs from wild brood stock. Production of trout and salmon will not be affected.

The moratorium will mean hundreds of lakes across the state that are stocked with pike, walleye and muskies -- some annually, some in alternate years and some sporadically -- will not be stocked this year.

Muskegon Lake, which has been stocked in alternate years, has become a hot spot for walleye fishing, especially for anglers fishing for trophy-sized fish. In January, Scott Hilliard of North Muskegon caught a 15.56-pound fish, the largest documented walleye from Muskegon County waters and among the five heaviest walleyes taken from Michigan waters in more than 50 years.

Muskegon Lake was stocked with 191,536 walleyes in 2006, so it is scheduled to be stocked again in 2008. White Lake and Big Blue Lake, also stocked in alternate years, was expected to be stocked this year before the moratorium was established.

Brian Evans, an employee at Adam's Angler Archer in North Muskegon, said he is concerned about the long-term effects of halting the stocking schedule and he believes VHS is already in Lake Michigan.

"Just in the past few years, it's been fantastic," he said of the walleye fishing on Muskegon Lake. "We're close to the state record fish now.

"It's like they're throwing up their hands and giving up. I wonder where all our license fees are going to go now if not for restocking fish."

Officials said they expect no immediate impact on anglers.

"I think fishing will be just fine," DNR fisheries chief Kelley Smith said. "There might be a slight hole a few years out. It may be noticeable in some areas and it may not."

Smith said that natural fish populations occasionally fail to produce in a given year and large year-classes in subsequent years typically make up for missing year-classes.

The largest impact of the moratorium will be on walleyes. The DNR usually hatches about 40 million walleye fry annually that are dispersed to conservation partners for rearing in ponds. The program produces 5 million to 10 million fingerlings annually, said Gary Whelan, who runs the DNR's fish hatcheries.

Brood stock for walleye hatchery production comes from the Tittabawassee and Muskegon rivers, both of which have direct connections to the Great Lakes. Biologists are worried that inland sources for pike and muskie brood stocks might have been contaminated by anglers who also fished the Great Lakes, but there is no way to test for it.

"When you look at the risk, this is almost a no-brainer for us," Smith said of the moratorium.

The DNR plans to take eggs, as usual, for the stocking programs but to use the eggs to determine whether those fish stocks have been infected and experiment on technologies to disinfect them.

Technology to disinfect trout and salmon eggs already exists, having been developed on the West Coast and tested in Michigan. The DNR plans to experiment to see if the same technology will work on the other species.

Smith said all Great Lakes states and the province of Ontario are essentially staging the same kind of moratorium.

Meanwhile, Iowa -- which has a strain of muskies that is genetically similar to Michigan's fish -- has agreed to raise additional muskie fry and, if successful, the planting of fall muskie fingerlings could go on as scheduled.

VHS was first identified in the Pacific Ocean in the late 1980s and in the maritime provinces of the Atlantic in the late 1900s. It was first detected in the Great Lakes, in Lake Ontario, in 2002. Fisheries officials believe VHS made its way into the Great Lakes through ballast water in ocean-going vessels.

Smith said he was optimistic that the DNR will be able to resume its stocking programs next year, if experiments prove the eggs from brood stock can be disinfected.

"If we get stuck in this mold for several years, then we will feel it," Smith concluded.

I don't see the info for a meeting on the website here-

Lansing Gander Mountain 7:00 PM

right?

Duke wrote:I don't see the info for a meeting on the website here-

Lansing Gander Mountain 7:00 PM

right?

Yes, that is correct. I'm not sure how that got missed on the events section.